LARGEST ACCREDITED NEGRO NEWSPAPER WEST OF CHICAGO AND NORTH OF KANSAS CITY —MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED NEGRO PRESS
Entered as Second-Class Matter at The Post Office, Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, May 31, 1941 OUR 14th YEAR, No. 11—City Edition, 5c CODV
Under Act of March 8, 1874—Business Phone: WE. 1517__ __ _ ___ . .
JUNE GRADS’;
Fifty-two Colored boys and girls
will graduate from the Omaha
high schools this year. There
will be 14 from Central, 28 from
Tech, 4 from North and 6 from
South.
They represent in numbers a
bout one third of the pupils who
entered high school together four
years ago.
The present high school enroll
ment of colored youth is over
three hundred. They represent
the hope an promise of free com
munity. And what is happening
here is happening in all parts of
the country, where we pretend to
have freedom of education. One
thing is lacking, —OPORTUNITY
for the products of mr free sys
* the- .appen long to
tne Colored Race.
Until this barrier has been re
moved, and education will go a
long ways to remove it, we cannot
have freedom and security in a de
mocracy either for the Colored
race or the White race or all the
other things wdch make life worth
the living
Congratulations to the grad
uates. The journey from now on
through college and through life
will sorely try you. Be of good
cheer. The sad and bitter and bat
tered world today needs your fine
faith and hope and courage and
promise. God bless all of you.
TWO NEGROES ON JURY
PANEL IN MISSOURI
Jefferson City, Mo., May 26 (A
NP)—Two Negroes were impanel
ed for possible jury service in the
trial of a third Negro which wa3
to be held here Thursday. This
represents the first time in the
history of the central district f'd
eial court of Missouri that the
names of Negroes have been in
cluded on jury panels.
The question of excluding Neg
roes from juries was raised last
fall when NAACP. attorneps made
a motion to dismiss an all-white
jury in the Bluford vs. University
of Missouri case because Negroes
had been systeatically excluded
from the panel. At that time the
motion was overruled.
Judge J. C. Collet, presiding
judge of the central district, last
week insisted that the names of
Negroes be di-awn in the trial of a
man accused of failing to report
for induction under the Selective
Service law. U- S. Commissioner
Charles Seibold, explained that
federal jurors are picked from lists
of names suggested by postmas
ters and that no Negroes’ name j
had appeared on the lists previous
to this occasion.
I
MOB LOSES LYNCH VICTIM
S- C. EXTRADITION VETOED
Eoston, Mass.,—A possible lyn
ching was averted and a blow a
gainst mob rule struck when Gov
ernor Leverett Saltonstall of this
state returned, unsigned and un
honored, extradition papers’ for
Private Andrew Harmon Ford,
formerly of Cheraw, S. C-, to the
Governor of South Carolina, on
May 16.
Unsung hero in the case is Levi
G. Byrd, treasurer of the Cheraw
branch of the National Associat
ion for the Advancement of Col
ored People who endangered his
life to notify the Boston branch
and national office of NACP. of
ti e case and to urge that they act
to prevent Ford from being re
turned to South Carolina.
Private Ford has returned to
Camp Edwards near here whore he
enlisted after fl« eing an angry
•■outJun mob. He was accused cf
naving assaulted with intent to
kill, Frank Stokes, white, of Chei
aw. Ford was attacked on a Chsr
aw street by Stokes and se /oral
ether white men who kicked nr.d
beat him. In self-defense, he
slashed Stokes with a knife, es
caped and made h:3 way to Camp
Edwards where the South Carolina
police followed him with demands
for ills return to that state.
Special credit also goes to Mr.
Ray W. Guild, president of the
A. PhILIP RANDOLPh PREPARES POR
*
MARCH ON WASHINGTON
Boston branch NAACP. who pled
Ford's cause asd was largely in
strumental in preventing his be
ing turned over to the southern
police.
GRADUATING
EXERCISES
FOR NURSES
The Baccalaureate Services for
the graduating nurses of Genera)
Hospital No. 2 were held at Wood
land Christian Church, Kansi.s
Citj, Mo., Sunday, May 18, 1941.
The Omaha girls graduating in
that class this year are L^reeta
Piddles, Ruth Anderson, and Ethel
Terrell.
The graduation exercises were
held Wednesday, May 21.
Miss Terrell was appointed to a
position et Leedj Sanitariu n in
Kansas City, Mo.
Miss Riddles is not expected
home until fall weather begins
REPUBLICANS HAVE CHANCE
TO SERVE NEGRO IN
CONGRESS
• Washington, May 25, (ANP) *—
Reput-Bcar members of Congress
have two opportunities oefore
them to render the Negro rac3 a
distinct service, provided they are
interested in such service.
Before long, the appropriations
for the WPA will come up for hear
ings. This is opportunity number
one- With Democrats lining up
with the administraton, it is report
ed to slash this bill or that partic
ular portion whch deals with e
WPA., Republican members of the
house can do soe good work in at
tepting to forestall these cuts arid
preserve among the large numbers
of persons taken care of by this
form of relief, some semblance of
respectability.
True, in the past ,the Republic
ans have decried this form of
work relief, but nothing has been
done by the administration to re
lieve the situation, and the WPA.
must be continued. The only way
it can be continued is by facing
the issue squarely and observing
the lassitude shown toward Negro
es and other unemployables in
keeping them off the payrolls of
the big companies engaged in de
fense program work
While it has been said m the
past the WPA- seemed to be haven
for Negroes and that eventually
WPA. would become an all Negro
outfit, facts and figures belie this,
for throughout the south there are
thousands of whites who are on
this benefit with no relief in sight.
If the WPA. is abolished, there
will be greater confusion in the
United States and more suffering
than ever before, For at present,
the much maligned WPA. is the
only refuge for millions who can
not get employment, despite Mr.
Knudsen's statement to the con
trary.
Mr- Knudsen said in a speech
last Sunday in observaton of "P
Am An American Dap” in Chicago
“If you want work, you’ll hustle
out and take what you can get and
not sit and wait for work to come
to you—you can still find plenty
of opportunity- Democracy does
that for us, and only democracy
gives a man the opportunity to
make as much or as little of him
self as he wishes. This is the dif
ference in my mind between total
itarianism and democracy—one is
all for the state and the other is
for the individual.”
With all of these fine state
ments, however, the Negro is find
ing it more and more difficult to
obtain jobs—and the stop gap be
tween jobs on private industry
pay rolls and relief is the WPA.
It is up to the clear minded and
clear thinking members of cong
ress to render this service to tne
Negi-o, as much as the Negro hat
es to be consigned to the WPA. It
is his only salvation until the field
is cleared up.
The second opportunity for ser
vice for these Republicans who
have criticized everything but
were unable to do anything in the
fight being made for a clean up of
the nasty situation existing in the
employment setup of the Social
Security board. Martin Carpen
ter, an executive of this govern
ment department, has a solution
which has backfired because of
prejudice and racial friction.
At first, the matter was bruited
about the Social Security board
through an anonymous circular,
later it was brought to the atten
tion of congressmen and the old
bugaboo of racial equality flaunt
ed in the faces of the unregener
ated southern section of the house
An immdiate clique was formed
to block any efforts on the part of
Mr- Carpenter to modernize the
setup, bring it up to date so that
it could function and ot the same
ime equalize the opportunities for
employment of Negroes through
the changes proposed.
In sub-committee rooms, south
ern representatives loudly and op
enly declared themselves against
any such change and found a way
to bring into the arguments the
question of colored interviewers
talking with white female clients.
This alone was sufficient to defeat
the proposal although it has not as
yet come to a vote.
The time is therefore ripe for
the Republican members of the
house to look into these situations
and if they can’t rectify them, at
least make some kind of a fight to
WE INVITE YOU
! Front view of the New Omaha
Guide Building w ith its neon sign
We invite you to inspect our
new, up-to-date newspaper plant.
RANDOLPH RETURNS FROM
SOUTHERN TOUR; TO AS
SUME DIRECT COMMAND OF
MARCH ON WASHINGTON
Upon completion of a tour of the
Southeastern Seaboard in the in
terest of organizing Colored Loco
motive Firemen, A. Philip Rand
olph International President of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Por
ters and National Director of the
movement to mobilize fifty thous
and Negroes to march on Wash
ington for jobs and justice in Na
tional Defense .announced in the
Nation’s Capitol that he plans to
devote all of his time during the
month of June to the development
of the March
He asserted that the activities of
the March on Washington Comm
ittee throughout the country are
rapidly being put into High and
would be kept there so that the
movement of the March on the
Capitol of the Aresnal of Democ
racy would assume a blitzkreig
tempo to execute a maneuver of
mass action by Negroes for their
economic, political and social
rights that will shake America.
When asked about the marches
in the various cities upon their
City Halls to urge Mayors and
prevent the complete defeat of
plans Which would be beneficial to
all Americans, whether white or
colored.
Too little attention has been
paid these items by the Republican
members of the house and when an
interested prson visitd Joseph
Martin of Massachusetts, Mr. Mar
tin referred him to Dr. Emmett J.
Scott. Immediately the man told
Mr. Martin that Dr. Scott was an
estimable person and very capable
but Dr. Scott like himself, knew of
these things but could do little a
bout them. What was wanted
was the voice of a congressman on
the floor of the house in protest
against this and other things
which would mitigate against the
Negro population of the district as
well as the entire nation, for as
the district goes, usually the na
tion pattern is similar.
Visits were aUo made Rep. Tink
ham and Sen. Lodge with the same
proposals. That the matter is de
finitely in the hands of the Rep
ublicans is a known fact— what
their action will be reains to be
seen.
- J
BULL AIRCRAFT GIVES IN;
W1I.L HIRE NEGRO YOUTil
Buffalo, New York—The vicious
circle has come to an end for Eu
gene Redding, 21 year-old New
Rochelle. N. Y., lad who was refus
ed a job at the Bel! Aircraft com
pany plant here early in April.
A report has just been received
by ;h<- National Association for
the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple. hat as are suit of NAAOP.
action in this case, the state em
ployment sevice at Buffalo, pro
mises to send Redding to Bell A’r
craft with its next quota of work
ers and Bell has agreed to take
him.
Redding was recommended by
his instructor at \ccation training
schol, Quoddy, Maine, for a job
with Bell along with five other,-.
Four o* the others had their appli
cation1. accepted and went to worK
for the company the first w«ek in
April. Redding and another col
ored ycuth were the only two c"
the six who were not given jo is
Tier sure was brought by the N.
AACJ . through Ira De A. P.ei 1 of
thn Buieau of Employment Sec
urity. Washington, D C.
. — ainiMaMM | HW
ADAMS’ SUBSTITUTE BILL. A
STEP FORWARD AGAINST
DISCRIMINATION IN UNIONS
C. C. Galloway, Acting Editor
Omaha Guide,
Dear Sir:
In that the Negro is waging a
fight over the country to gain a
place in Defense and Industry and
to gain recognition by labor un
ions I thought that the following
story might be interesting to you
and your readers concerning a Bill
passed by the Nebraska State Leg
islature.
After the Tower bill was pasjed
by the Kansas Legislature, Negro
organizations in Omaha requested
me to place such a measure before
the Nebraska Legislature. This
request came two weeks before the
legislature was to adjourn and too
late for the introducing of a bill.
I found, however, that there was
already pending in the legislature
a bill introduced by a Senator
George Bevins (white) of Omaha,
L. B 504) to regulate the payment
of fees for membership in labor
unions. This bill had no chance of
passage and I persuaded Mr. Bev
ins to let me use his bill as a car
rier for the law we wanted passed.
He agreed to this and I succeeded
in getting my Dill substituted ior
his by amendment, which in sub
stance was the same as the Tow
er’s bill. I am enclosing a copy
of my amendment herein. This
bill as amended was advanced to
ward final passage. I have en
closed a marked copy of the Lin
coln Journal showing what discus
sion took place on the bill, and
several other marked copies show
ing the story of the bill. However
when the bill came up the second
time, it was opposed on the ground
that the national Wagner Labor
Act defined who should have the
collective bargaining power and
the state could not limit this. It
was necessary to make a compro
mise amendent in order to get the
bill passed. The bill was passed
and was signed by Dwight Gris
wold, Governor of the State of Ne
braska on May 23rd. The subject
matter of the bill is as follows:
"It is hereby declared to be the
policy of this state that no repre
sentative agency of labor in col
lective bargaining with employers
concerning grievances, labor dis
putes, wages, rates of pay, hours
of work, shall, in such collective
bargaining, discriminate against
any person because of his race or
color. The department of labor
shall be and hereby is charged
with the duty of enforcement of
this policy, in conformity with Ar
ticle 1 of the Constitution of Ne
biaska and section 1 of the 14th
amendment to the constitution of
the United States of America.”
I believe this is a definite step
forward and will help to educate
the public in Nebraska against
discrimination in Unions. Already
since this bill was pending we have
seen definite results in Omaha in
the employmen of Negroes on
pending projects and admission of
the same into unions.
We have 43 members in our leg
islature and it takes 22 votes for
the passage of a bill- This bill
received the necessary 22 votes
after the legislature had been held
under a call of the house for ap
proximately an hour. Because of
the fight put up by the American
Federation of Labor against this
bill most of the members did not
care to record their vote for or a
gainst it.
ANNOUNCE CIVIL SERVICE
EXAMINATION
Washington, May 31 (ANP) —
An open competitive examination
for the position of specialist in
vocatonal education in agriculture
has been announced by the United
States Civil Service comission. No
written examinations will be held
but applicants will be rated on the
basis of education and experience.
Further details may be obtained
from local post offices.
JAMES P. ECHOLS, WORLD
WAR VETERAN. DIES
Mr. James Pleas Echols, age 46
World War Veteran, died May 22
at the Veteran Hospital at Musk
ogee, Oklahoma, after an extend
ed illness- Mr. Echols was h mus
ician and had been an Omaha resi
dent for a number of years. He
is survived by his wife Mrs Dev
ice Echols of Omaha, a brother
Mr. Thomas Echols, Wardsworth,
_
If you want to work in any of the
industries set up for our national de
fense, there is a certain course for you
to pursue. This chance is given to the
young men of the country between the
ages of 18 to 25. There is not much to
do in tryirtg to get on these jobs, but
you must do that. Any young man
who has had experience in any field of
mechanics, whether in machine shops
’or in courses at High
School. You simply go to
the Nebraska State Em
ployment Bureau, in the
Arthur Block, 218 S. 18t;
Street, Omaha and regis
ter. Be prepared to make
a clear statement of what
experience you have had
in this line and where.
Experience is a prorequis
ite in getting on. Why
not do this today. It is
understood that this train
ing is now being offered
at Technical high school.
City Councils and Aldernianic
Boards to memorialize President
Roosevelt to issue an EXECUT
IVE ORDER to abolish racial dis
crimination in the Government asd
National Defense. Randolph re
plied thatp reparation for the
marches on the city halls by Ne
groes were proceeding with vigor,
ability and enthusiasm.
While in Washington, he and
Captain Eugene Davidson, Assist*
ant Director of the March selected
headquarters for the National and
Local Committees.
ARGUMENT
LEADS TO
STABBING
On Sunday night, at about lip.
rn , Miss Opal Terry, 2226 Miami
Street, was stabbed by Miss Helen
Sherwood of 2615 North 24th St.
An argument allegedly started
in a local tavern, when Miss Terry
in a different part from Miss Sher
wood, began to playfully fight,
ending by choking Miss Sherwood
who left the tavern almost immed
iately after.
Later in the evening when the
two were at another tavern, Miss
Sherwood ollegedly started in
Miss Terry’s direction when the
latter hit Miss Sherwood on the
head with a beer bottle- Miss
Sherwood than Walked away from
Miss Terry, and when she return
ed she had a knife in her hand and
stabbed Miss Terry in the throat.
MEMORIAL
DAY
BY ROBT. L. MOODY .
Since last May 30 many more
souls have passed into eternity.
Some have gone calmly as a re
sult of disease. Others have died
suddenly or horribly because of
accidents, bad hearts, suicide, mur
der and war. Some were notabl
es, while others were lesser lights
but all have gone the same path
that many more of us must go.
I Whether our friends and loved
ones were regarded as great, their
passing leaves an deep impression
upon us. We are reminded that
we have an opportunity to make
life and the world better or worse,
this being dependent upon our
willingness to take heed- We bow
our heads in reverent memory of
those noble characters who died
during the past year; and we are
highly resolved to profit by the
less noble passing of others.
Many have died for a glorious
cause and more are dying now or
will be called upon to give their
lives for a like noble cause. This
is very well done but the world
needs to learn a better lesson
If all men would realize the re
ward of “living” for a glorious
cause, there would be less need for
dying in war, starvation and dis
ease. The only way to die nobly
is to live nobly.”
S!i^tnuitniuuifRmiuuiiiiuuuiuiiiniu;iiiiiu!iiiiiiiiiimiiiuiinniiiti:!iii!!:ni!ii
Kansas. Funeral services were
held at 2 P. M. Tuesday, May 27
from Thomas Mortuary, with the
Roosevelt Post No. 30 of the Am
eriean Legion in charge, burial
Soldiers Circle at Forest Lawn.
